


Early Next Year

by nothingeverlost



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Episode: s03e17 A Hundred Days, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-08
Updated: 2017-04-12
Packaged: 2018-10-16 11:32:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10570437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothingeverlost/pseuds/nothingeverlost
Summary: What if it had been Sam who had gone to the caves instead of Jack?  What if Sam couldn't bend the laws of physics, but they had to wait for that Tollan ship?  How does the team get though a year when Sam's stuck on Edora, and what happens when she gets home?Team!fic, Jack/Sam, possibly other ships





	1. MIA

“That was our last shot, people and I'm calling this one. As of right now, I'm officially declaring her missing in action.” For a few moments the room was silent, the hum of energy generated in creating a wormhole now missing, and the occupants of the room stunned and grieving. It had been ten days since the meteor shower. Ten days since since Carter had volunteered to find the last of the refugees and bring them to the gate. Ten days since they’d been able to establish a wormhole between Edora and Earth. One hundred and seventeen Eudorans were stranded on base, separated from their homes and their families. Jack couldn’t find it in him to care. All he could think about was the fact that Carter was stuck on the other side of the universe. He’d left her behind. The fact that he’d narrowly avoided being hit by a burning rock flying at him didn’t absolve him of what he’d done. They never left a teammate behind.

“General Hammond, perhaps Edora could be reached by another means,” Teal’c offered. While his voice might seem calm, Jack had known him long enough to recognize both agitation and hope.

“That's right, the Tok'ra could send a ship.” Daniel’s hope was far more obvious; for a brief moment Jack was reminded of Charlie, offering Santa a long list of things he was certain he would find under the Christmas tree, including a puppy. How Daniel could remain so optimistic when they had seen so much of what the universe offered, Jack could never understand. It was sometimes a source of frustration, and sometimes a source of comfort. He was enough of a cynic for one team.

“The Tollan also have ships capable of interstellar travel. And perhaps there is a way to contact the Asgard.” Teal’c looked at Daniel, nodding his head in approval. 

“Let me at least contact those of our allies that are capable of interstellar travel and see if they're willing to help,” Daniel requested. His answer came almost immediately; while Hammond’s hands were tied when it came to committing the resources of the base to a seemingly impossible task, Jack knew he was no more comfortable leaving a member of the program stranded then Jack was.

“Very well, Doctor.”

Jack didn’t say anything. He stared at the Stargate and the wall beyond. There was one person who might be able to fix things, and she was the only person who couldn’t help. They needed Samantha Carter to help them save Samantha Carter.

II

The Stargate was gone. Hynan was right, the ground where it had stood three days before was only a crater. There was no DHD, no doorway to Earth. There were a lot of rocks and thousands of light years between her and home. Between her and her team.

“Damn it.” She kicked one of the rocks, watching it roll down into the newly formed crater. Her toe throbbed, alerting Sam to the stupidity of her action. There were no doctors here on Eudora anymore. She wasn’t sure there was even any medicine beyond the basics she carried in her bag. Breaking her toe would only make things worse.

“It's gone. I'll never see my people again. They can never come home.” Laira had followed her at a slower pace, less frantic and more resigned. She spoke with great sorrow as she looked over the barren piece of land. “And you Samantha…”

“I need to borrow a shovel.” She couldn’t think about the fact that she might never go home. She needed to think about what she could do, and the first thing she could do was dig to find the gate. There were no shards of gate in the rocks, not so far as she could see. No red crystals or anything to tell her the gate was destroyed. Maybe it was just buried. She had to try and find it.

Sam spent three days digging, setting up a grid pattern and stopping only for water and a meal at midday. She only returned to Laira’s after the sun had set and she couldn’t see well enough to make out the difference in color between rocks. On the fourth day she woke to find Laira watching her from the chair closest to her sleeping pallet. 

“We must rebuild before harvest, and there are very few of us to do the work. We need your help, Samantha.” Laira offered her a change of clothes, the simple homespun that everyone in the village wore. Although she wanted to be digging she could not refuse the plea, nor ignore the fact that for a time at least her survival was tied up with these people.

“Where do we start?” If she put in a full day no one would mind if she spent the last hours of light back at the dig. She wasn’t ready to give up.


	2. Adjusting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “She deserves better than waiting a year.”

“Have you heard from Thor yet?” Daniel asked the question once a day, every day in the three weeks since the last MALP they’d tried to send to Eudora. All Jack was able to offer each day was a shake of his head.

“The Tollan should have a ship in the area by early next year. They’ll take the Edorans with them, and bring Sam back.” Daniel picked at the salad in front of him, abandoning it to drink his coffee instead. A cup of jell-o sat on his tray, but they both knew he wouldn’t eat that either. He couldn’t seem to stop himself from picking it up, just like he usually did when Sam was on base but holed up in her lab. Normally he would bring it to her; it was one food she’d always take a break for.

“She deserves better than waiting a year.” Jack ate his own meal by rote, taking small bites of his mystery meat without bothering to try and figure out what it was. 

“At least we know we’ll be able to get her home. And the Eudorans are good people, she won’t be alone.” He needed something to hold onto, and Jack couldn’t take away his hope even if he didn’t share it. He couldn’t say out loud how often he’d wondered if she was even alive. Maybe she’d made it to the caves, but even if that had saved people a hundred and fifty years ago there was no promise that it would again. One meteor impact in just the wrong place and all their waiting could be for nothing. While Daniel looked forward to a reunion, Jack feared a memorial service.

“I have to head out, I’m supposed to go to the Academy today to supervise some training.” It was a lie; he just needed to be somewhere else. Daniel needed something from him that he couldn’t offer, he needed to know that everything was going to be okay. Jack just needed to make it through to the end of the day. He couldn’t think about tomorrow, or early next year.

He headed south when he left the base, taking the roads that were becoming familiar enough that he didn’t have to think about where he was going. Janet had given him the key to Sam’s house a few days after Hammond had decreed that Samantha Carter was MIA. Someone needed to water her plants and bring in the mail until other arrangements could be made. He’d promised to stop by a couple of days a week.

Carter’s plants were in danger of drowning from daily watering.

“So what does she talk to you about?” he asked an aloe plant sitting in the window sill. Trust Carter to have a practical plant, and not a single flower. He wasn’t really talking to the plants, he told himself. Not like Carter probably did. It wasn’t like they needed it, unlike some other plants he knew.

It wasn’t like they actually missed Carter.

The only thing in the mail was a journal. Jack didn’t bother reading it, he knew it was over his head. Instead he headed for her living room and the intro to astrophysics book he’d found at the bottom of her bookcase. He didn’t expect to learn enough to help bring her home, but maybe if he learned enough he could at least ask the right questions and someone could find a way to answer them. 

II

She’d taken up fishing. The colonel was going to laugh if she was ever able to tell him. It wasn’t a pond in Minnesota, but she did have a pier of sorts, and a pole. She would imagine that the colonel’s was more sophisticated but she didn’t have time time to design anything. Her tinkering had been limited to a new watering system for the crops, a barometer to track weather systems, and her as-of-yet failed attempts at producing electricity.

Fishing was the one time no one questioned her desire to be alone. She spent time in the fields, helping with the crops. The women all did their laundry together, and once a week there was a sewing circle; she probably pricked her finger more than the cloth but if she didn’t want to live forever in two sets of BDUs and a borrowed outfit from Laira she had to learn to make her own clothing. She shared her meals with Laira, as well as sleeping in her room. Even in her trips to the site where she hoped the Stargate was still buried were rarely alone. When she took her pole to the river, however, no one accompanied her.

Sometimes, for just a moment, she allowed herself to imagine that a member of her team was going to meet her there. Teal’c, with his calming presence, would tell her of the rivers of Chulak and an afternoon stolen away from their training to swim in the waters. And then he would sit beside her, and the silence would be comforting and not at all lonely. Daniel would tell her of settlements built on the edge of the Nile, dependent on the waters for food and transportation and farming. He would remember something he’d read in a book once, and suddenly she’d been getting a lecture on the farming practices of ancient Egypt. She’d lose track of what he was saying, but she wouldn’t silence him because she knew what it was like to be excited about the subject and his enthusiasm would wash over her. Jack would tease her about her fishing pole, and tell her the fish in Minnesota were bigger. He’d warn her about her nose getting burnt and toss her the sunscreen he always carried even though he didn’t use it half as often as she or Daniel. When a fish nibbled on her pole he’d be excited for her. Maybe his hand would touch hers as he helped her reel it in. Maybe she’d lean back against him, accidentally, as she pulled the fish up to the pier.

Colonel O’Neill, she reminded herself. He was still her commanding officer, even if he was a few million miles away. Even if he hadn’t been able to give her a command in more than a month. If she ever found a way home she needed to remember that. But for now she needed to focus on her fish. It would make a nice dinner for her, Laira, and Garren.


End file.
